Training Log Archive: Grandpa Jameson

11-8. good beers, good food, good sleep.

super mellow spin on lakeshore bike path with beth, dan, & erica. just what the body needed. spent the rest of the day relaxing, packing bikes, and then out for some beers with dan.

10-4. not the best night of sleep. took a while to fall asleep, which NEVER happens... and then woke up a few times but the sleep i did get was solid. up at 4am.

Pre-Race stuff (some random info, but good for log, read on if you poop)

solid pre-race dinner. grilled chicken, sweet potato fries, spinach.

woke at 4 so i would plenty of time for my morning "mission"... didn't end up happening! nightmare... another thing that NEVER happens. usually only takes me a a couple of sips of coffee and about 5-10 minutes tops. all i can think is that will all the time zone changes over the last few days, weds-PST/CST, thurs-CST, fri/sat - CST/EST has by body all mixed up sleeping, eating, and bathroom-wise.

pre-race breakkie: big bowl of cereal (wf/gf puffins, puffed corn) w/ almond milk and banana. this has been working really well on long training days so i went for it. different than i would normally have on race day but my wave didn't go off until 8:41.

left the house at 515 and it started rain... and then pour. parked the car in the rain, and then rode our bikes to transition in the rain and dark.... sketchy! triathletes don't know how to ride.

it just kept raining..... everything and everybody was soaked. i thought it was funny. nothing you can do. all these triathletes were so bummed, bitching and moaning... crying! THERE"S NO CRYING IN DREAM CRUSHING!

i just set up my transition and put all my gear in a trash bag so it wouldn't get wet. then helped beth get ready. they closed transition at 645 and beth started at 730 so we walked down to the beach and then the 1.2 miles to the swim start. rain finally stopped.

the water was super calm. stoked. long walk and i was starving. i was cold and shivering the whole time setting up so i was burning more cals. and because we didn't have our transition bags and we borrowed smaller bags i only brought the race essentials.... and NO extra food. dumb. lesson learned.

by the time we got down to the swim start i was STARVING and trying to bum a bar off anyone... no luck. then i was sitting on the beach and they were calling a wave and it was a guy standing behind me. he panicked... ripped open a snickers marathon bar took a bite, dropped it, and bolted for transition. i was in survival mode. picked up the bar out of the sand, washed it off, broke off the part he bit, and killed. hit the spot.

got in a solid swim warm up and weather was getting rad.

swim time.

I was in one of the last waves and the 2nd of of 2 waves of 30-34. it was a beach start and after a little run we were swimming out to the first bouy. it was a quick right turn and then it was a mile straight of buoys every couple of hundred yards before the final right turn into the shore. it was a pretty mellow start. the really fast guys went off the front quickly and i settled into the second pack, which didn't last too long. some guys hammered, some guys blew, and i ended up swimming solo for most of the 1.2 miles. in my head i kept it simple. i just "stayed in the box" and swam buoy to buoy and gradually increased my effort. I am pretty sure i negative split the swim and am pretty stoked with my time give my lack of swimming.

this is where things got weird. coming out of the water i had no idea how fast i swam. there were no clocks anywhere and i wasn't wearing a watch. i threw on my wet helmet and shoes and got to work. immediately my garmin on my bike kept losing reception and going into autopause mode... annoying. this lasted the entire ride so i never knew how long i had been on the bike and or how far i was into the race except for mile markers every 10-15 miles on the course. so i was just riding hard and passing tons of guys... and no one would come with me. i thought this was kind of weird. I am not super strong on the road, especially when it comes to TT style efforts but i wasn't hodling back. i just tried to stay as aero as possible and keep the hammer down. i was feeling great, nutrtion was working, and the time was flying by. i knew i was having a good ride but still had no idea of how long i had been on the bike until i caught Joe around mile 50 who started in the wave before me (7 minutes before) and he told me he was on sub 2:20 pace. this kind of blew me a way. i thought on a good day i could ride around 2:25 but i was on pace to go sub 2:20. so we hammered and on and worked the last 6 miles together, legally. just using each other for motivation. i rolled into the t2 really stoked and ready to get to work.

i still had no idea where i was in the race or what my overall time was. no clue. nobody had age group body marking done in the morninig because of the rain and that coupled with the wave starts made it kind of a free for all. i was just racing myself to see how fast i could go. i was hoping that with a good run i could finish in the low 4:20's.

i got on the run course and immediatley started pushing it. i had my garmin and the plan was to run 6 minute miles for as long as possible, hopefully until mile 10, and then see what i was made of in the last 5k. the run course was quite a bit harder than i expected. a lot of rollers, a couple of steep climbs and some twisty trail/path sections throughout the whirlpool campus. i was feeling good and hitting almost every mile right on pace. i lost a little on some of the climbs but was hanging on and i knew if i kept it up there was a chance to break 1:20. nutrition was spot on and my energy level NEVER faded. i got to mile 10 at 1:00:22. just 22 seconds of 6 min pace.... i was ready to nail it. for the finaly 3 miles and i picked it up a bit and finished strong!

C • talent... 2

115-615. good sleep. woke up with a gnarly stomach ache last night... never happens. weird.

looking like some rain tomorrow... should make things more interesting.

pre-race shake out. ez and 5 x 20 second accelerations on the way home.

feeling good. ready to race. legs are snappy

rode down to the lakeshore bike bath with beth and dan after run. just cruised and threw down some short intervals to open up the legs.

4 x 30 second
2 x 1 min

booyah... bike is FAST!

2am-915 chicago time. got in late last night and was a bit wired. still got some good sleep. maybe could have slept more but wanted to adapt to time change... and race site (2hrs) is even an hour earlied...

saturday morning is going to come early.

mellow cruise this morning after building bikes. up to bike shop to get new stem and co2.

mellow day and after running around and finding some hopefully epic post race IPA's. hit the lake shore path and just cruised with bro-in-law Dan. good times and awesome afternoon. just cruising on the bike path making sure the bike was ready to race... it is.

tons of people out riding and running... awesome. tons of hipters on fixed gears all over this city... weeger would probably spontaneously combust!

10-615.

travel day... but flight doesn't leave until 5:45 tonight for chicago. gonna be a long day. hitting a quick B/R session, finish packing, and then may hit the pool if i have time.

go time.

feeling it.....!

no rush getting out the door. felt good from the start. rode a killer loop with a bunch of rollers. the plan was to just use the terrain and knock out some unstructured intervals... and BLOW it out!

attacked the rollers in and out of the saddle. FELT AWESOME. one of those rides where i felt like i could rips the pedals off the cranks.... can't wait to race!!!!!!

off the bike. just cruising. no hard running. kept it aerobic. half way through i was ready to drop the hammer... didn't... that comes on saturday.

mellow session. feeling good in the water.. all about feel.

2000 scy

400 swim
4 x 150 (50k,50dr,50s)
2 x 100
4 x 50
8 x 25
400 pull w/ paddles

core and foam roller after swim.

930-530. Up with no alarm. Banking 8hr nights.

Bit of a bigger day, but mellow. Depleting glycogen stores.

up early and on it. busy day, mtgs, cutover, packing...

hit the coast and cruised down to UCSD and pack. another mellow effort. nothing over 150. legs are feeling good and was definitely holding back... even when getting dropped on the coast by a bunch dudes in t-shirts.

lunch run. race prep. ez 3 miles out then 6x30" on 2' on the way back.

30 second intervals were accelerations to race pace 2/ 1:30 EZ jogging between (recovery)

felt great... awesomeness is creeping in. wanted to keep going when the 30 second intervals were ending. ready to run fast!

C • be careful with the... 3

mellow swim after work. just loosening up.

500 swim
200 k
300 drill
500 pull w/paddles
2 x 150 (50k, 50 dr, 50s)

good times

930-550. no alarm. tried to sleep some more but ended just getting up. a lot to get done in next couple of days.

RACE WEEK! Nutrition excellence starts NOW. race week "diet".

EZ stuff today. want to keep the legs moving a bit and get in the water.

Recovery spin. up to carlsbad and back. mellow and the legs are feeling pretty good.

really looking forward to massage later!

EZ/Recovery session before lunch.

2000 scy

200 swim
200 pull
6 x 150 (50k, 50 drill, 50 swim)
3 x 100 steady
2 x 50 mod
4 x 25 hard
500 pull w/ paddles

Killer massage. mellow session today. body is feeling good.... keeping it rolling....